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My favorite art actually isn't paintings. I much prefer black and white photography. My current favorite paintings are those of Christian Riese Lassen. You can find some of his work here. Sorry everything is under copywrite, so you will have to follow the link http://www.lassenart.com/flash.html
My favorite is called Amber Dawn, and I would love to own it. I doubt I would have much luck talking my husband into spending the money:lol: Oh well, one can wish.
I don't know if he's already been mentioned (sorry,didn't exactly read/see the entire thread),but I always thought the paintings of Nikolai Ge were interesting. I'm by no means an expert,and I'm usually not a big fan of religious motifs,but his style always struck me as interesting.
Also,Luis Egidio Meléndez! Again,I'm not an expert,but his paintings are the best still-life paintings I've ever seen.
But,you know,this really isn't a fair question,about my favourite artist and painting... Because,now when I start thinking about it,there are at least 50 names that spring to mind. So,instead of picking one,here are a few of my favourites: Dante Gabriel Rossetti,Delacroix,Caspar David Friedrich,Renoir,Manet,Van Gogh,Cezanne,de Chirico,Ernst,maybe even Kandinsky...Magritte,Eugeniusz Zak,Chagall...Definitely Louis le Brocquy!
And,I have to mention Mersad Berber,perhaps the greatest Bosnian painter of all time. You may not have heard about him,which is a shame,but perfectly understandable - however,he truly is a great artist. Here are a few of his paintings(I've had the pleasure of seeing some of these in person):
http://www.ezgeta.com/RiJ.jpg
http://www.eegallery.com/exh/02.09/title.jpg
http://www.galerijabanfi.com/htmlHRV...r/Berber01.jpg
http://bosnjackiinstitut.org/bosansk...erber%2004.jpg
Actually, I am familiar with Mersad Berber. I have mixed feelings about his work. In many ways he strikes me as a hopeless anachronism... his work is clearly derivative... too much so at times... of 19th century academic tradition... I especially see echoes of Klimt... and he rarely breaks away from the same 'classical" themes and motifs (all so painfully beautiful) of the era. His paint handling... his pseudo-weathered and beaten surfaces and his "Neo-Classicism" recall ancient Egytian encaustic tomb paintings... and abstraction. But then again I quite like some of his paintings:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ild/ber060.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...d/IMG_3158.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2.../MBOR-0001.jpg
I agree,it does sometimes seem that he was just...born at the wrong time. Also,his two main motifs,the horse's head and the face of a girl(woman) are recognizable in pretty much all of his paintings,yes,but I think that is a bigger pro than con(after all,Picasso was quite fond of recurring motifs as well),at least you instantly know whose painting it is when you see it :)Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
Outsider Art- Part 1
Outsider art is one of the most fascinating fields in the whole of art production... and in a way it is seemingly unique to the visual arts... or rather I should say its appreciation... perhaps due to the quality of the work... seems to be unique (although one might note Nerval and John Clare). By "outsider art" I am referring to that art which was produced outside of the context of any larger culture and their artistic traditions. By this definition the art of the Amish or the Shakers may have been created outside of the tradition of the dominant American culture and it's artistic traditions... but it was most certainly not outside of the Amish or Shaker traditions in which it was developed. Rather, when speaking of an "outsider artist" I am speaking of that lone individual... often having little or no formal artistic training... who has created a body of work of unique vision... having little or no connection with the culture(s) in which they live... often having little concern for displaying this work to the larger society... and almost certainly not in any professional context. The unique vision of this art has led to it's being also defined as "visionary art", and the "visionaries" of which I speak are more likely than not isolated individuals... eccentrics... and even the mentally disturbed.
In some ways, William Blake falls into this category. If it were not for his traditional training in the field of print-making, as well as his central stature as both poet and visual artist, he would almost certainly qualify as an "outsider artist". Eccentric? Unquestionably. Unique vision? Certainly his efforts as a poet and an artist fall outside even the most daring innovations of European Romanticism. One also must look at the manner in which the artist/poet continues to turn out a voluminous body of art and writings... in spite of having virtually no audience within the larger culture of the time. Perhaps most intriguing, in Blake's case, is the fact that his visual art most definitely exhibits several characteristics that are quite common of "outsider art" (and in spite of their not being part of any formal "group" there are surprisingly certain common elements in the art of many "outsider artist"... perhaps not unlike the common elements found in the art of children). The most obvious of these elements is the obsessiveness... a horror vacui:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Judgment-3.jpg
-Last Judgment
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...d/N02231_9.jpg
-Last Judgment
... in which every single little area of the painting surface must be filled with detail... and the entire whole swirls and writhes in visionary ecstasy.
One of the earliest of the outsider artists was the sculptor, Franz Xavier Messerschmidt (1736-1783). Messerschmidt had been trained as a sculptor by his uncles and attained the position of assistant professor of sculpture at the Imperial Academy of Vienna with the understanding that he would be promoted to the position of the chair or sculpture upon the vacancy of that position. When the incumbent chairman died, however, he was passed over... due to a "confusion of the head". Messerschmidt abandoned his post and began wandering throughout Germany, eventually settling in Pressburg. He continued to take on commissions... which he would never undertake to do. However, he had not abandoned his art altogether. Rather, Messerschmidt spent his time working on a large body of very strange self-portraits. Although, as he stated, he lived chastely, he was continually visited by ghosts who caused him pains in his legs and abdomen. Through his study of the Egyptian, Hermes Trismegistos, he developed a bizarre theory of the relationship between the parts of the body and facial proportions. By striking bizarre facial attitudes: grimaces, scowls, grins, etc... he thought to confront and counteract his bodily pains. In spite of the "eccentricity" of his theories, the resulting works are among the most fascinating sculptural works of the era.
[IMG]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k255/Stlukesguild/MESSERSCHMIDT_Franz_Xaver_Character.jpg[/IMG
-Hanged
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...r_Charac-1.jpg
-Beaked
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...r_Charac-2.jpg
-Beaked (side view)
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...r_Charac-3.jpg
-Lecher
In another vein altogether, we find the outsider work of the painter Edward Hicks (1780-1849). At the age of thirteen he apprenticed as a coach-maker where he was to remain employed for 7 years. His living situation inspired him to desire a much better way of life. He wanted a simple, well respected life employed in such as way as to earn his own keep (something akin to Thoreau?) He spent three years contemplating what his life should mean and developed a deep and abiding passion for art and religion. Hick took on the role of a minister within the Quaker church, and he was a fervent preacher. His wages in this role, however, were strained as his family began to grow following his marriage to Sarah Worstall. He decided to take on a secondary profession, as it were, painting household objects, tavern signs, etc... He was actually quite successful in his role as a painter, but this began to conflict with the some of his congregation's beliefs as to the proper "simple life" without adornments. Hicks abandoned painting and the ministry and took up farming... at which he was a complete failure. He was eventually persuaded to return to painting... without the added role of minister. His paintings essentially became a visual means of sharing his spiritual beliefs. Hicks was completely self-taught as a painter. His paintings have a magical child-like/fantasy quality to them. Hicks was known for paintings illustrating historical narratives of the period as well as Biblical narratives. Perhaps the most successful of the latter was his painting of Noah's Ark. Hie most famous... and popular painting... an image he would paint again and again... was the Peaceable Kingdom. In Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom... not only would the lion lay down with the lamb... but also the cheetah, jaguar, bald eagle, the cow, the bear, the goat, the child, the wolf... the native American Indians and the colonists... all would live together in peace and harmony in this new America.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2.../Noahs_Ark.jpg
-Noah's Ark
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ld/12am265.jpg
-Peaceable Kingdom
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ild/hicks2.jpg
-Peaceable Kingdom
continued...
To stlukesguild: It takes a person a while to come up to speed on this thread.
Outsider Art Part 1 (continued...)
Richard Dadd (1817-1886) was another intriguing early "outsider". Dadd exhibitted a talent for art quite early on, and was fully supported in his artistic efforts by his father. He was educated at the Royal Academy and was generally seen as a leading talent among the up-and-coming artists. In July 1842, Sir Thomas Phillips, selected Dadd to accompany him as his draftsman on an expedition through Europe to Greece, Turkey, Palestine and finally Egypt. In November of that year they spent a grueling two weeks in Palestine, passing from Jerusalem to Jordan and returning across the Engaddi wilderness. Toward the end of December, while traveling up the Nile by boat, Dadd underwent a dramatic personality change, becoming delusional and increasingly violent, and believing himself to be under the influence of the Egyptian god Osiris. His condition was initially thought to be sunstroke. On his return in the spring of 1843, he was diagnosed to be of unsound mind and was taken by his family to recuperate in the countryside. He soon became convinced that his father was the Devil in disguise, and Dadd murdered him with a knife and fled for France. En route to Paris Dadd attempted to murder a tourist with a razor, but was overpowered and was arrested by the police. Dadd confessed to the murder of his father and was returned to England, where he was committed to the criminal department of Bethlem psychiatric hospital (also known as Bedlam). It is unclear as to what exactly was the medical condition he suffered from , but it is usually thought to have been a form of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Genetics may have played a role as two of his siblings were equally affected. Dadd was housed at Bedlam until 1864 when he was moved to another asylum at Broadmoor, outside of London. His reputation as an artist is almost entirely indebted to the work he did while institutionalized. Dadd's most important work, The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, is an obsessively detailed painting upon which Dadd worked from 1855-1864. This painting, like others by Dadd, echo the obsessive setail and fantastic imagery of an artist like Hieronymus Bosch. Not only is the painting obsessively detailed in its representation of the imaginary fairy world, but it is thickly encrusted with paint... almost bejeweled.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...uild/dadd2.jpg
-The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ild/dadd07.jpg
-Bacchanalian Scene
One of the most absolutely astounding achievements of outsider art must surely be that of Ferdinand Cheval (1836-1924). Cheval was a French postman who spent 33 years collecting stones on his postal route and using them nightly to construct his Palais Ideal. Cheval claimed that he tripped on a stone and was inspired by its shape to begin his amazing project. Combining stones with lime, mortar, and concrete, Cheval constructed a virtual fantasy palace building upon Biblical and Hindu sources. When Cheval discovered that the French government would not allow him to be buried in his creation, he spent another 8 years constructing a mausoleum for that purpose. Cheval's masterpiece was acclaimed as a masterpiece of Surrealism by Anfre Breton. Pablo Picasso was also an ardent admirer... as was the writer/critic Andre Malraux, who saw to it that the work was proclaimed an officially protected cultural landmark during his reign as Minister of Culture.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...d/1bsite-1.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ais_Ideal1.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...aade_Estsm.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...esguild/40.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ild/1bsite.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...esguild/43.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...eur_Cheval.jpg
All images of Ceval's Palais Ideal... excepting the final of his Mausoleum
continued...
Outsider Art Part 1 (continued...)
A near contemporary of Cheval, Henri Rousseau(1844-1910) must certainly be the most famous and perhaps the most influential "outsider artist" after William Blake. Rousseau spent most of his life working in various petty bureaucratic positions. He began painting seriously in his mid-40s and retired from his full-time job at 49, when he doubled his artistic efforts. Rousseau was a true naive... having little or no training in painting, he aspired to be a great academic artist, and was largely unaware that others saw him as untutored and his paintings as "child-like". It must be admitted that his paintings attained a level of polish and finish not unlike that of the academic painters... and yet his drawing was certainly unschooled (not to say crude) and his subject matter fantastic. Rousseau actually exhibited in the first Fauves' exhibition with Henri Matisse, and was commissioned by the artist, Robert Delaunay's mother to paint what is surely one of his masterpieces, the Snake Charmer. When Pablo Picasso happened upon a painting by Rousseau being sold on the street as a canvas to be painted over, the younger artist instantly recognized Rousseau's genius and went to meet him. In 1908 Picasso held a half serious, half burlesque banquet in his studio in Le Bateau-Lavoir in Rousseau's honor. Rousseau was become a major source of inspiration for the Surrealists, Picasso, Max Ernst, Max Beckmann, David Bates, and endless other artists.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...uild/gypsy.jpg
-Sleeping Gypsy
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...equatorial.jpg
-Jungle Scene with Monkeys
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...eau_akimbo.jpg
-Portrait of a Woman
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ke-Charmer.jpg
-Snake Charmer
Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930) has become one of the most sought after of the outsider artists. Wölfli was abused both physically and sexually as a child, and was orphaned at the age of 10; He thereafter grew up in a series of state-run foster homes, after which time he was virtually sold into slavery in the position of an indentured farm laborer. He reputedly fell in love with a farmer's daughter, but his advances were rebuked, shortly after which he was convicted of attempted child molestation, for which he served prison time. Shortly.after being freed, he was arrested for a similar offense and was admitted in 1895 to the Waldau Clinic in Berne, Switzerland, a psychiatric hospital where he spent the rest of his adult life. He was very disturbed and sometimes violent on admission, leading to him being kept in isolation for his early time at hospital. He suffered from psychosis, which led to intense hallucinations. During his institutionalization, Wolfli began to draw. At some point after his admission Wölfli began to draw. Walter Morgenthaler, a doctor at the Waldau Clinic, took a particular interest in Wölfli's art and his condition, later publishing Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler (A Psychiatric Patient as Artist) in 1921 which first brought Wölfli to the attention of the art world. Wolfli's work would become instrumental in the eventual acceptance of "outsider art", or "art brut" as titled by its champion, the artist Jean Dubuffet.
Wolfli produced an immense body or work... often in the form of bound books... almost a form of illuminated manuscripts. The largest of these "books" was a semi-autobiographical epic that stretched some 45 volumes:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...raet385web.jpg
...and 25,000 pages, including some 1,600 full page illuminations. The images Wölfli produced were complex, intricate and intense. They worked to the very edges of the page with detailed borders... a true example of horror vacui. The images often combined elements of collage, text, and even musical scores (for which Wolfli had invented his own method of musical notation):
http://www.adolfwoelfli.ch/content/u...ranscribed.mp3
http://www.adolfwoelfli.ch/content/u...ranscribed.mp3
http://www.adolfwoelfli.ch/content/u...ranscribed.mp3
When Wolfli died in 1930, the Adolf Wölfli Foundation was formed to preserve his art for future generations, today its collection is on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Berne. Wolfli's vast output has only begun to be be properly documented, and this has been made all the more difficult due to the demand for his work by collectors which has led to many works being broken up and sold as individual images. There are those who believe it to be quite likely that once Wolfli's achievement has been properly judged, he will be recognized as one of the greatest artist of the 20th century... a sort of Modernist William Blake. From what I have seen of Wolfli's work, I would not question this assessment:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...guild/01-1.gif
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...esguild/02.gif
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...guild/04-1.gif
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...sguild/3-1.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...a_copy1_lg.jpg
Wolfli images continued...
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2..._copy1_lgb.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...a_copy1_lg.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...1191338180.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...1914841382.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...1914948440.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...esguild/b5.jpg
continued... (later today;))
Morris Hirshfield (1872-1949) was to become of perhaps the first widely recognized outsider artist in the US. Born in Poland, Hirshfield eventually opened a successful slipper manufacturing business with his brother in New York. For health reasons, he retired from the business in 1935 and turned to art. He was greatly disappointed with his efforts, declaring to the art dealer, Sidney Janis, “It seems that my mind knew well what I wanted to portray, but my hands were unable to produce what my mind demanded.” Nevertheless, in 1939 two of Hirshfield’s paintings were selected to be included in a private exhibition of “Unknowns” at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1943 he was given a one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art that caused a great deal of controversy. The Art Digest sardonically dubbed Hirshfield, “The Master of the Two Left Feet.” Yet Hirshfield weathered the storm of controversy and emerged as one of the most prominent folk artists of the century.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...031c76e110.jpg
-Cows
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Hirshfield.jpg
-Tiger
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...-in-mirror.jpg
-Girl in Mirror
The US was to foster its own variant on the Palais Ideal thanks to the efforts of Simon (Sam) Rodia (1875-1965). Rodia emigrated from Italy to the US at age 15 with a brother. He lived in Pennsylvania until his brother was killed in a mining accident, at which point he moved to the west coast. He first lived in Seattle, then Oakland, and then Long Beach before settling in Watts in the early 1920s. While living in Seattle, he married and had three children with his wife. While living in Watts he began the construction of the Watts Towers or Nuestro Pueblo ("Our Town"). The sculptures' armatures are constructed from steel pipes and rods, wrapped with wire mesh, coated with mortar. The main supports are embedded with pieces of porcelain, tile, and glass (Green glass includes recognizable soft drink bottles, some still bearing the logos of 7 Up, Squirt, Bubble Up, and Canada Dry; blue glass appears to be from milk of magnesia bottles). They are decorated with found objects: bed frames, bottles, ceramic tiles, scrap metal and sea shells. Neighborhood children brought pieces of broken glass and pottery to Rodia in hopes they would be added to the project, however the majority of the material consisted of damaged pieces from the Malibu Pottery, where he worked for many years. Rodia reportedly did not get along with his neighbors, some of whom allowed their children to vandalize his work. Rumors that the towers were antennae for communicating with enemy Japanese forces, or contained buried treasure, caused suspicion and further vandalism.
In 1955, Rodia gave the property away and left, reportedly tired of the abuse he had received. He retired to Martinez, California, and never returned. The city of Los Angeles condemned the structure and ordered it razed, however an actor, Nicholas King, and a film editor, William Cartwright, visited the site in 1959, saw the neglect, and decided to buy the property for $3,000 in order to preserve it. When the city found out about the transfer, it decided to perform the demolition before the transfer went through. The towers had already become famous and there was great opposition to the dim witted efforts of city bureaucrats from around the world. King, Cartwright, and a curator of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, along with area architects, artists, and community activists formed the Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts. The Committee negotiated with the city to allow for an engineering test to establish the safety of the structures. For the test, steel cable was attached to each tower and a crane was used to exert lateral force. The crane was unable to topple or even shift the towers, and the test was concluded when the crane experienced mechanical failure. The committee preserved the towers independently until 1975, when it deeded the site to the City of Los Angeles, which in turn gave ownership to the State of California. It is now designated the Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...attstowers.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...220162a1f2.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...a9421f22f7.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...Doorway_01.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...esguild/89.jpg
End of Part One
I stumbled upon this painting just yesterday,have to confess it's the first time I saw it:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...t_MadameX.jpeg
There's something captivating about this woman... By the way,the author is John Singer Sargent.
There's something captivating about this woman...
Of course there is. The painting is the notorious Madame X. The sitter is actually Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wife of Pierre Gautreau, a French banker. Ms. Gautreau was an American of Creole descent born in New Orleans. She moved with her mother to Paris following the death of her father in the Civil War, and both quickly established themselves in the highest echelons of French society. Gautreau inspired a great deal of gossip and resentment as the nouveau riche American flaunting her wealth and her looks. She was known for her use of the latest cosmetics and for wearing the most daring fashions... as well as for her numerous infidelities. Sargent's portrait of Ms. Gautreau scandalized many with the overly forward and confident manner presented by the sitter as well as the obvious sensuality of the pose and the dress. The black dress contrasted dramatically with Gautreau's pale white powdered flesh... and this was even further heightened in the original version of the painting in which Sargent had presented one of her straps as having fallen down. "One more struggle", wrote a critic in Le Figaro, "and the lady will be free". The scandal of madame X was further heightened when it was presented in tandem with the portrait of Dr. Samuel Jean de Pozzi:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...zi_at_Home.jpg
Pozzi was a suave and handsome doctor specializing in gynecological and abdominal surgery. Although he was married, he was known for his numerous romances... including that with the the widow of Georges Bizet, and the rumored affair with Mme. Gautreau. Pozzi was portrayed by Sargent as the flamboyant playboy... dressed in a sensuous, flaming red velvet dressing gown... in an almost mocking parody of the numerous Renaissance and Baroque portraits of Catholic Cardinals... as well as the Devil himself. Pozzi was the perfect contrast... or the perfect partner to Madame X. Unfortunately, Sargent paid too much attention to the negative press. His works in Paris and Italy were undoubtedly his most audacious and daring... painted with a bravura brushwork worthy of Van Dyck or even Rubens. Sargent later settled into the position of society painter in England and America... where the flamboyance of his greatest works was out of the question.
http://www.getreligion.org/wp-conten...the_scream.jpg
the more i think about it, the more i like "The Scream"
i always thought this painting by maryilyn manson was always cool
http://www.marilynmanson.nl/images/a..._i_get_old.jpg
'When I Get Old", it was painted with absithe
Here are my two all time favorite paintings
http://www.kidcrosswords.com/kidread...h_of_venus.jpg
Birth of the Venus
Sandro Botticelli
http://stochastix.files.wordpress.co...9-van-gogh.jpg
Starry Night
Vincint Van Gogh
The Kiss (original Der Kuss) was painted by Gustav Klimt reproductions during his ‘golden period’, and is probably his most famous work.
It depicts a couple, bound up in various shades of gold and symbols, sharing a kiss against a bronze background.The dusky
featured man dominates the woman, holding her face to bestow the kiss. This is one of the famous klimt reproductions The woman with a lighter complexion kneels
beneath the man, resignedly clutching his neck and hand.
The lovers are situated at the edge of a flowered escarpment. The man is wearing neutral coloured rectangles and a crown
of vines; the woman wears brightly coloured tangent circles and flowers in her hair. The twain’s embrace is enveloped by
triangular vining and a veil of concentric circles.Similarly juxtaposed couples appear in both Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze
and Stoclet Frieze.
I must finish the posting (part 2) on the "Outsider Artists"... however, I lack the free time just now. Nevertheless, I thought I'd post a little on some of the art I have been looking at. Since the standardization of letter forms under Charlemagne (who couldn't read) and the introduction of the movable type printing press by Gutenberg, calligraphy has lost its place as one of the central art-forms. Certainly there have been book artists for whom the layout and the look of letters on the page has been imminently important; I think especially of designers such as Aldus Manutius, founder of the Aldine Press, and William Morris, especially famed for the Kelmscott Chaucer. But none of these equal the expressive quality of the written word... of calligraphy... as a visual for of communication as one might regularly find in Islamic...
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...guild/1412.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...sguild/ala.jpg
or in Asian...
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ild/F19694.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ld/bonzai2.jpg
or even in earlier European books:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...d_newlarge.jpg
Perhaps the only major artist/author to come close to such a merger of the written word as both a visual and literary art was William Blake:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ild/mhh3sm.jpg
It probably shouldn't be so surprising that Blake is such a central figure to me.
Exploring Asian art and literature recently... and especially that of Japan... I have been greatly enamored of what must surely be one of the greatest creative partnerships in the history of art. The artists of whom I am speaking are the Japanese masters, Hon'ami Kōetsu (本阿弥光悦)-1558-1637 and Tawaraya Sōtatsu (俵屋宗達)-early 1600s. Kōetsu was born into a family of swordsmiths and mastered the craft himself. Like many aristocratic Japanese artists of the era (and not unlike the Renaissance artists) he was accomplished in a broad array of artistic forms, including ceramics, enamels, lacquer, and calligraphy. As a calligrapher, he was deeply inspired by the great poets of the Heian period (794 to 1185)... the so-called "classical era" or "golden age". Sōtatsu was primarily a painter and creator of beautiful papers for use in calligraphy. He is credited with having developed a "wet into wet" style of painting in which one color is dropped into another still wet color so that the two "bleed" together forming a marvelous atmospheric effect that is difficult to control and deeply admired by the Japanese, who had a great respect for the spontaneous in art. Kōetsu and Sōtatsu worked together for some 15 years producing marvelous works of art in which the text, calligraphy, paper, and painting all merged to create a marvelous visual and literary work of art. There are suggestions that the close relationship of the two artists may have been long-lasting due to their being related by marriage.
Kōetsu and Sōtatsu developed a form of visual art in which calligraphy was equal to painting... a concept not uncommon in Japanese, Chinese, and Islamic cultures. Both painting and the calligraphic forms served to illuminate the classical Heian poems. In this work...
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...es_461x531.jpg
... the artists illustrate a poem describing thunder in the pines. Bolder calligraphic characters... closer to Chinese in manner... suggest the explosion of sound that thunder makes, while other... more elegant and more characteristically Japanese-style symbols suggest the rain falling onto the pines below.
continued...
In other examples the calligraphy and painting merge into one. Of course the artists had the advantage of building upon a poetic tradition that was very image-based. Most of the classical Japanese poetry is very short and simply paints an exquisite and intensely imagined visual image:
In a gust of wind the white dew
On the autumn grass
Scatters like a broken necklace
-Bunya No Asayasu
In the spring garden
Where the peach blossoms
Light the path beneath,
A girl is walking.
-Yakamochi
(both tr. Kenneth Rexroth)
Kōetsu and Sōtatsu often created works in which the calligraphic form is almost an inseparable part of the visual image. Here, for example, illuminating a poem upon willow trees, the characters are lost within the foliage of the tree:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ow_297x371.jpg
In another example, the calligraphy illustrates the water and water-lilies as much as the painted image:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2.../sotatsu-1.jpg
The same can be said of this illumination of a poem upon bamboo:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...&pictureid=132
Or that portraying a beach with pines and billowing clouds:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...&pictureid=131
One of the most marvelous creations of the partnership of Kōetsu and Sōtatsu must be the so-called "Deer Scroll" in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...tsuScrolls.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...d/koetsu7s.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...esguild/4s.jpg
The Deer Scroll illuminates 28 poems of autumn from the Shin Kokin Wakashū (新古今和歌集) or New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems, an anthology compiled beginning in 905 and concluding c. 1439.
The Seattle Art Museum owns but half of the entire scroll, or about 30 feet. The scroll was divided by a Japanese collector in the 1930s and the remaining portions of the work are owned by 5 Japanese museums and several private collectors. There are also a few missing pieces. The interactive Deer Scroll website at SAM...
http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhi...roll/enter.asp
...offers a pdf. file going into greater detail exploring the scroll and the artists involved. More importantly, it offers an interactive view of the entire scroll as it originally existed... using computer enhancements of black and white photographs of the missing portions. One may scroll through the work and zoom in close upon the imagery... or click upon links to translations of all of the poetry. The site offers a fabulous view of a fabulous work of art. Enjoy!:banana:
I would love to share with you my favourite artists/painters/illustrators but I am so outside the taste range of all you that I am afraid that I might be better off not uploading pictures/paintings. I see everyone here are into classical, ancient and traditional artists/painters. The problem I have is that I also love contemporary artists that experiments with fantasy, science and human form/anatomy and mind/soul/intellect. I also love contemporary artists that implements variety of media and plays around with extreme creativity. Seeing that no one has uploaded any contemporary works, I assume everyone intends to keep this thread strickly non-contemporary.
Would I be wise to keep contemporary works away? Because I still do have numerous favourable traditional artist models such as Edward Hopper, Rene Magrette and Leonardo da Vinci that I would like to share.:)
If you look through the thread you will find that many of us have posted contemp art (esp Lily Adams). All art is welcome in this thread. Post anything and everything you like. Its about the art you like, not about what people will think of you for liking it.
I quite like Magritte. I've got this poster on my wall:
http://suppiya.files.wordpress.com/2...hesonofman.jpg
Mine is Magritte too.
http://www.galleryofart.us/albums/Ma...ance,%20La.jpg
Mine is The Sonnet by William Mulready
You should google image search it. It is pretty much amazing.
Thank you Niamh in this case I would like to post up one of my favourite illustrator, David von Bassewitz. He is a German illustrator that explores to express deep seas on human dreams and deep spaces of human imagination. His works derive from blueprints of submarines and spaceshuttles as they morphed into drawings then illustrations.
http://www.online-literature.com/for...pictureid=2616
http://www.online-literature.com/for...pictureid=2620
http://www.online-literature.com/for...pictureid=2618
http://www.online-literature.com/for...pictureid=2619
I would like to add that I also admire Magritte, esp Time Transfixed. I like his use of juxtaposition of unrelated objects in an eerie, dreamlike atmosphere.
http://www.cord.edu/faculty/andersod...transfixed.jpg
I like the third of those illustration. :nod:
Samuel Palmer.
He was utterly overshadowed by Turner in terms of fame, but I personally prefer his work. A very intimate and vibrant quality to 'em, especially during the Shoreham years. He was a big fan of Milton, and he absolutely idolised Blake.
Some of his work:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Palmer_002.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Palmer_004.jpg
His self-portrait:
http://z.about.com/d/arthistory/1/0/...f_Portrait.jpg
skasian, that Magritte painting is magnificent!
I'm a Magritte man myself! Glad to see so many people on the same wavelenght. He's pretty much the typical painter for literature people, so I guess it's not that surprising :)
I am so thankful that you feel the same way about that painting!Quote:
Originally Posted by Caspa
I think its one of the best that he ever painted, with such accuracy and realism. That one sure got me sitting down and attempt to unveil the meaning of, and I did a research on him (for school anyways) and there was a quote he said describing his work as mysterious where mystery cannot be solved.
Here another favourate of mine, Edward Hopper, who is a traditional painter who was very orginial to use the effects of cinematic composition, dim lightings and contrasts as well as the feeling of lonliness and solitude. Here are some of his works, I hope you like them as much as I do.
http://irea.files.wordpress.com/2008...1939.jpg?w=515
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...pp_CA2.600.jpg
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/file...otelWindow.jpg
I found a Simpsons version of The Nighthawks and its so cute!
http://img.ffffound.com/static-data/...2b07ab34_m.jpg
skasian... certainly, feel free to post modern and contemporary art to this thread... or perhaps better yet... to the Artist Cafe. I have posted works by a number of contemporary artists there, including Lucian Freud, Anselm Kiefer, and Sean Scully. While my own work is deeply rooted in older traditions, many of my favorite artists are Modernists, and I also freely admit to an admiration for illustrational work by artists such as R. Crumb, Ray Ceasar, Toshio Seiki, Takato Yamamoto, Vania Zouravliov, Aya Kato, etc... You speak of art utilizing a variety of media. I have already posted not merely paintings, but architecture, book arts, calligraphy, etc... I would be interested in some more examples of what you are interested in. Again... think about posting (or cross-posting with a cut and paste copy) to the Artist Cafe.
Mine is The Sonnet by William Mulready
You should google image search it. It is pretty much amazing.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/...53d8c71c_o.jpg
Yes... that painting is marvelous. The gestures of the young couple are so telling. I had seen it before, but did not know who the artist was. Lovely painting.
Some favourites of mine:
http://www.strawberry-candy.net/random/art/001.jpg
Ophelia by Antione-Auguste-Ernest Hébert.
http://www.strawberry-candy.net/random/art/002.jpg
The Island of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin.
http://www.strawberry-candy.net/random/art/004.jpg
Mother with Child by Gustav Klimt.
http://www.strawberry-candy.net/random/art/005.jpg
Salome by Lucien Levy-Dhurmer. (yes, my icon)
http://www.strawberry-candy.net/random/art/007.jpg
The Wicked Mother by Giovanni Segantini.
http://www.strawberry-candy.net/random/art/008.jpg
Vertigo by Leon Spilliaert.
Sorry for the giant picspam! ^^;
Ah, thanks for the information, I will post works in the artist cafe from now on.Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
That reminds me of another paiting with a young couple. The artist is Albert Edelfelt, and the painting is called "Värnamon markkinoilla" or "Suru" (sorrow). After six years of hard work the couple just found out their savings are worthless and they have to wait another six years before they can get married.Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
http://articlesandtexticles.co.uk/im...delfelt01x.jpg
Favourite painters:
Edvard Munch (expressionist), Odd Nerdrum(kitsch/modernisme), Monet and Salvador Dali
Favourite paintings:
Sick Child by Edvard Munch
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rthVersion.jpg
Madonna by Edvard Munch:
http://bildr.no/view/320204
The Ultimate Sight by Odd Nerdrum
http://bildr.no/view/320202
Because the one in my signature isn't large enough...
http://dali.urvas.lt/forviewing/pic29.jpg
Salvador Dali's Metamorphosis of Narcissus